Ready to carve a dragon?

I want to start out by thanking Tom for writing the books he has written. This is one of two books from Tom Wolfe that I own, the other being Tom Wolfe carves Wizards, imagine that. Tom has written over 50 books, and from what I’ve read and seen in the two I have, I’ll be buying more in the future. If any of you out there know Mr. Wolfe personally, tell him I said thanks.Part of what got me interested in this book is that I love fantasy creatures. Dragons, Wizards, Elves, etc. Like a lot of people out there, I’m a great fan of Tolkien and a number of other fantasy writers. More than those works though, I love the works of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Particularly the Dragonlance series. I’ve also admired the work of two artists who have done numerous covers for that series, Larry Elmore and Todd Lockwood. To me, the dragons in Tom’s book remind me of some of Elmore’s work.

So now, on to a review.

I got a used copy of Tom Wolfe Carves Dragons off of Ebay for a decent price. The book contains over 60 pages of Tom giving directions to carve and paint a single dragon (the blue one on the cover). A number of the pages are in color, while some are in black and white (maybe how it was printed). The back of the book has four patterns, followed by a gallery with the four carved and painted dragons. The blue dragon is one of these.

While looking for a copy of this book, I read several ranged reviews on Amazon. Most were positive, but a few were concerned with the fact that Tom uses both hand tools and some flex shaft tools. My response to this is that you can carve the entire book with just hand or power tools if you really wanted to. This book is a guide to carve dragons the way Tom Wolfe carves dragons. If the man carves using both, that’s no big deal to me. I like my hand tools, and when I get ready to carve my dragons, that’s likely all I’ll use. (Ok, MAYBE, I’ll use a dremel to help with the sanding.) I personally don’t think it takes a lot of brain power to adapt the instructions to fit a particular carving tool preference.

All in all the book is GREAT, and I’m glad I got it. The instructions are step by step, very detailed and easy to follow. While the book only details carving a single dragon, I think that after carving it, you’d be ready to take on any of the others in the book.

-- Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. Vince Lombardi